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Past Exhibitions

Student Art Exhibitions: Featuring Baltimore City and Baltimore County Public School students

From May 6, 2015 — May 17, 2015

The BMA is holding a student art extravaganza, with concurrent exhibitions of works from both Baltimore City and Baltimore County Public School students.

Art is for Everyone

Running for 27 years, Art is for Everyone presents the artwork of Baltimore County public school students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

The breadth of the county schools' art programming is highlighted by a variety of two- and three-dimensional artworks, including sculpture, photography, drawing, painting, and digital art.

fyi... For Your Inspiration 2015

In its ninth year, the BMA hosts fyi... For Your Inspiration 2015, a citywide student exhibition present artwork by 400 students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade at 90 Baltimore City public schools.

Experience the creativity and imagination of Baltimore youth in a range of artworks using traditional and surprising materials and techniques.

Lessons Learned: American Schoolgirl Embroideries

From November 23, 2014 — May 10, 2015

Discover samplers and silk embroideries made by schoolgirls from Maryland and other East Coast states during the 18th and 19th centuries, which were displayed by families as showpieces to advertise their daughters' accomplishments.

From opulent to understated, the works provide a glimpse into early American life, depicting landscapes, still lifes, tributes to national heroes, and literary and biblical scenes.

One elaborate work depicts the interior of King Solomon's palace and imperial trappings of the Queen of Sheba's entourage in silk, metallic threads, sequins, and glass gems.

This exhibition marks the return of the Jean and Allan Berman Textile Gallery, located within the renovated American Wing.

Curated by

Anita Jones, Curator of Textiles

Front Room: Dario Robleto

From November 16, 2014 — March 29, 2015

Looking like a cabinet of sea curiosities and feeling like a ballad, Dario Robleto’s exhibition reveals a burning heart.

Artforum.com

Dario Robleto's Setlists for a Setting Sun weaves together the histories of recorded light and sound in a body of poetic sculptures, prints, and cut-paper works. The artist has drawn inspiration for the pieces from nautical history, space exploration, early sound recordings, and family legacies within American popular music.

The show debuts three works created by Robleto (American, born 1972) at Headlands Center of the Arts in Sausalito, CA, as part of its program to commission art from outstanding contemporary artists. These new works were inspired in part by the BMA's proximity to the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScl) on the campus of The Johns Hopkins University.

On Paper: Alternate Realities

From September 21, 2014 — April 12, 2015

Twenty-six narrative prints never before on view playfully exaggerate and reimage the visual language of popular culture. These works by American artist consider larger societal issues while exploring myths, folk lore, religious stories, and fairy tales.

Among the prints featured are two complete portfolios by Raymond Pettibon and Trenton Doyle Hancock, as well as newly acquired works by Wangechi Mutu, Amy Cutler, Chitra Ganesh, Toshio Sasaki, Iona Rozeal Brown, and William Villalongo.

At the center of the exhibition is an eight-panel, accordion bound work titled El Regreso del Caníbal Macrobiótico (The Return of the Macrobiotic Cannibal) (1998) by Enrique Chagoya. The colorful combination of woodcut, color lithograph, and chine-collé printing juxtaposes images of American comic book characters, Catholic iconography, medical illustrations, Mayans in overcoats, and alien spaceships.

Black Box: Anri Sala

From September 14, 2014 — February 22, 2015

The film recreates the terror and uncertainty civilians endured during the siege of Sarajevo by interspersing scenes of the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra rehearsing the First Movement of Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique with a musician making her way through what became known as Sniper Alley. Sprinting through the streets, the music runs through her head. At each crossing, she hesitates, holds her breath, and pushes through.

After reading art historian and critic Michael Fried’s insightful analysis of Sala’s work in his book Four Honest Outlaws: Sala, Ray, Marioni, Gordon, Curator of Contemporary Art Kristen Hileman was inspired to invite Fried to select a work by Sala for presentation in Baltimore.

Curated by the artist and Michael Fried, The Johns Hopkins University J. R. Herbert Boone Chair in the Humanities, and organized by Curator of Contemporary Art Kristen Hileman.

Front Room: Seth Adelsberger

From June 27, 2014 — November 2, 2014

He liked the idea that art could be an escape. Painting, he saw, could be a way of making decisions and breaking rules.

A variety of luminescent and textured paintings from Baltimore-based artist Seth Adelsberger demonstrates the artist’s innovative approaches to painting over the past five years.

In intense blues and saturated magentas, he creates his Submersion Paintings by staining untreated canvases with rich washes of acrylic paint before applying a thick layer of gesso. In his hands, this viscous white paint is unorthodoxly sandwiched in between the initial stained layers and a final wash of color, adding texture and dynamic form.

In his Border Paintings, the artist treats a painting’s surface as material to be cut away, leaving only a painted and wrapped edge to frame the void where one would expect to find the most important part of a picture. In other pieces, carpet fragments enhanced with images digitally manipulated replace paint and canvas as the media from which a ‘painting’ is made.

Adelsberger (American, born 1979) is the co-Founding Director of Nudashank Gallery, which has exhibited work by emerging artists, many from Baltimore’s vibrant arts community. His own work has been featured in group and solo exhibitions across the country. In 2008, he received the top award for painting from the Maryland State Arts Council. He received his BSA in Fine Arts from Towson University in 2002, and is a native of Emmitsburg, Maryland.

The exhibition is organized by Curator of Contemporary Art Kristen Hileman.

Black Box: Lorna Simpson

From June 27, 2014 — August 31, 2014

The power of Lorna Simpson’s video installation lies in its choir of 15 voices gently humming the melody “Easy to Remember,” a haunting song about love and loss. Within the tranquil, flowing meditation, individual interpretations of the song emerge as we hear unique intonations.

One of the highlights of the BMA’s contemporary collection, Easy to Remember appeals to viewers “to recognize the common humanity that unites us all,” said Curator of Contemporary Art Kristen Hileman.

Simpson is one of the leading artists of her generation whose work has been widely collected and exhibited by such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin. In 2006, a mid-career survey of her work was presented at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, the Kalamazoo Institute of Art, and the Gibbes Museum in South Carolina.

From May 7, 2014 — May 11, 2014

For the 8th year, this citywide student art exhibition will present artwork by 400 students, from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, from 90 Baltimore City public schools.

Art is for Everyone: Baltimore County Public Schools Art Exhibition

From April 30, 2014 — May 4, 2014

The 26th annual countywide art exhibition includes a variety of 2- and 3-dimensional artworks-sculpture, photography, drawing, painting, and digital art-representing the breadth of the Baltimore County public schools' art program from kindergarten through 12th grade.

From April 20, 2014 — September 14, 2014

There are as many approaches to the human figure as there are artists. See ten compelling variations of the figure from contemporary masters in the latest On Paper exhibition. The intimate presentation features drawings from artists such as David Hockney, Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, and others.

The exhibition is drawn from the Museum’s Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection, a group of more than 140 outstanding drawings by international contemporary artists. These works are shown in the Contemporary Wing gallery dedicated to the presentation of the BMA’s renowned holdings of prints, drawings, and photographs.

The Renoir Returns

From March 30, 2014 — July 20, 2014

More than 60 years after its theft from the BMA, Pierre-Auguste Renoir's On the Shore of the Seine (c. 1879) returns to public view! A special two-gallery exhibition reunites the 5½-by-9 inch painting with more than 20 masterworks bequeathed to the BMA by visionary Baltimore collector Saidie May, who purchased the Renoir in 1925.

Highlights of the two-gallery exhibition include masterworks such as Piet Mondrian's Composition V (1927), Paul Klee's Traveling Circus (1937), Joan Miró's Portrait No. 1 (1938), and André Masson's There Is No Finished World (1942), which demonstrate May's role as an early champion of pivotal 20th-century artists.

Front Room: Sterling Ruby

From March 16, 2014 — June 15, 2014

The BMA presents an exhibition of provocative soft sculptures by acclaimed artist Sterling Ruby, deemed "one of the most interesting artists to emerge in this century" by The New York Times.

Crafted from red, white, and blue fabric, Ruby's enormous pillow-like forms resemble the fanged mouths of vampires and create a visual metaphor that suggests a critical outlook on the current state of American culture and politics.

Ruby’s work often employs practices associated with therapy and craft and frequently addresses oppressive political, social, and artistic power structures. The 11 soft sculptures on view combine imagery associated with the United States with fragments of vampires, undead creatures that feed off the living. Though seemingly inviting and celebratory at first glance, upon further inspection, the soft sculptures emerge as symbols of insatiable hunger, overwhelming power, and potential violence.

Curated by Curator of Contemporary Art Kristen Hileman.

Black Box: Camille Henrot

From March 5, 2014 — June 15, 2014

[Grosse Fatigue features] ... an expanding field of images that pop up, roil, collide, and implode across a computer screen, a digital tabula rasa that itself perpetually reinvents the world...

The BMA is the first museum in the US to present French artist Camille Henrot’s Grosse Fatigue, winner of the Silver Lion Award at the 2013 Venice Biennale. The energetic 13-minute video on the origins of life and creation myths incorporates behind-the-scenes footage of the prestigious collections at the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of Natural History.

Images of these anthropological objects, often manipulated by colorfully manicured hands, are presented in a rapid succession of desktop computer frames. The film's bold spoken-word soundtrack set to a driving hip-hop beat mixes scientific history with creation stories belonging to religious, hermetic, and oral traditions.

The exhibition is organized by Curator of Contemporary Art Kristen Hileman and presented in collaboration with The Johns Hopkins University Center for Advanced Media Studies.

Generously sponsored by Elaine and Solomon Snyder.

Baker Artist Awards 2013

From February 26, 2014 — April 6, 2014

Latiano's immersive, site-specific installation calls attention to the extinction of the baiji dolphin, an aquatic mammal known as the Goddess of the Yangtze. A pod of suspended driftwood sculptures, carved to mimic the baiji dolphin's skeleton, gradually takes shape and dramatically rises above viewers before cascading across an expansive gallery and slowly reverting to the natural form of driftwood.

Parks' installation focuses on two parallel bodies of work. In the first series, photographic portraits of deceased birds draw attention to the plight of birds unable to navigate during migration season due to light pollution and buildings without visible glass. This phenomenon of light altering perception is the subject of the second series, which documents the glass structures and spaces that create this disorienting effect for birds and people alike.

The Baker Artist Awards were established by the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund and are a program of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance. A diverse selection of works by nine $1,000 b-grant winners, curated by the Maryland Institute College of Art's MFA in Curatorial Practice Class of 2015, was presented at D center Baltimore last December.

German Expressionism: A Revolutionary Spirit

From January 29, 2014 — September 14, 2014

More than 35 vivid paintings, drawings, prints, watercolors, and sculpture present an overview of the revolutionary art movement that flourished in Germany during the first three decades of the 20th century.

The exhibition features powerful examples by Max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and other artists associated with the two most prominent Expressionist artist groups: Die Brücke (The Bridge) and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), as well as several independent expressionists.The exhibition includes several of the BMA’s outstanding, rarely shown color woodcuts, as well as loans from private collections.

Black Box: Gerard Byrne

From October 16, 2013 — February 16, 2014

Society’s desire to believe in something otherworldly can transform the banal—branches, rock formations, and mist on the water—into variations of a creature, the Loch Ness monster, both ominous and oddly endearing.

Gerard Byrne uses film and photography to explore the way that we develop this collective fantasy in selections from his on-going project Case Study: Loch Ness (Some possibilities and problems). Byrne infuses his work with wry humor as he explores how people see what they want to see rather than what is there.

Front Room: An-My Lê

From October 9, 2013 — March 2, 2014

The consequences of war and the enormity of the military’s reach are felt through quiet moments away from combat in An-My Lê’s powerful color and black-and-white images.

In the revitalized Contemporary Wing, this Front Room exhibition features 21 photographs from four series showing post-war Vietnam, Vietnam reenactors, and the American military carrying out training, surveillance, and peacekeeping missions on vast landscapes and seascapes throughout the world. Lê’s large-format camera captures the finest details of scene, which emphasizes the vastness of the landscapes. Though the artist is a Vietnam War refugee (she was airlifted out of Saigon in 1975 at age 15), she neither celebrates nor condemns the subjects of her work, letting the viewer determine their own meaning.

Matisse's Marguerite: Model Daughter

From September 18, 2013 — January 19, 2014

... As [Matisse's] style evolves, so too does Marguerite, and it’s a treat for the viewer to witness his subject’s growth.

More than 50 prints, drawings, sculptures, and paintings of Matisse's daughter Marguerite offer a rare look at the artist's personal life and work. Born in 1894 when the artist was struggling to achieve recognition for his art, Marguerite was a frequent model for her father, as well as a dedicated assistant and archivist.

Many portraits of Marguerite were breakthrough moments for Matisse, revealing an advance in his artistic vision. Over the course of 45 years, Matisse portrayed Marguerite in many ways as his art changed to reveal new ways of seeing, but always with a level of intimacy that's not seen elsewhere in his work.

The exhibition is drawn from the BMA's great Matisse collection with additional objects borrowed from museums and private collections, many not previously shown. Archival materials show a close rapport between Marguerite and Baltimore collectors Claribel and Etta Cone.

Morris Louis: Unveiled

From September 8, 2013 — February 9, 2014

Morris Louis (1912-1962) made some of the most enigmatic, unabashedly beautiful paintings in the history of abstraction, confrontational expanses that stir our feelings through pure relationships of color and gesture.

Illuminating unknown aspects of the ground breaking artist’s practice, Morris Louis: Unveiled presents more than 25 works, including several large-scale paintings and a number of rarely seen drawings that comprise a recent gift to the BMA from the artist’s widow’s estate. Exhibition highlights include two unusual and exuberantly gestural paintings Silver III, 1953, and Untitled 5-76, 1956 as well as the iconic Dalet Beth 'veil' painting.

Born, raised, and educated in Baltimore, Louis became a celebrated originator of the Washington Color School. Related works on paper by Klee, Matisse, Miró, Picasso, and Pollock demonstrate his range of influences.

Leading up to the exhibition, Curator of Contemporary Art Hileman worked with emerging art historian Antonia Pocock, a Ph.D. candidate at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. Pocock has been investigating Louis' approach to abstraction, especially in the BMA's atypical examples of paintings and drawings from the late 1940s through the mid-1950s. New research by Pocock will be published in a free exhibition brochure and also presented in a public lecture.

Front Room: Nathaniel Mellors & Jimmy Joe Roche

From July 3, 2013 — September 29, 2013

This exhibition presents irreverent, edgy, and absurdist videos by two artists exploring human behavior when social norms are stripped away. Mellors’ Ourhouse series of videos features a cast of misfit characters enacting the decline of an eccentric British family, while his new work The Saprophage examines the literal and metaphoric waste produced by contemporary society.

Roche uses a combination of performance, sound, and video to channel an array of American outcasts, ranging from fervent figures of violence to complacent burn outs.The exhibition will also include an intricate, psychedelic cut paper sculpture by Roche and photographic work by both artists.

Generously sponsored in part by the Mondriaan Fund.

Art is for Everyone: Baltimore County Public Schools Art Exhibition

From May 8, 2013 — May 12, 2013

For the past 25 years, the BMA has hosted an annual countywide student art exhibition, Art is for Everyone, presenting the artwork of Baltimore County public school students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The breadth of the county schools' art program is highlighted by a variety of two-and three-dimensional artworks, including sculpture, photography, drawing, painting, and digital art.

From May 1, 2013 — May 5, 2013

Now for the seventh year, the BMA hosts FYI…For Your Inspiration 2013, a citywide student art exhibition presenting artwork by 400 students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grades at 90 Baltimore City public schools.

RECEPTION

Baltimore City Student Reception

Saturday, May 4, 1-4 p.m.

Max Weber: Bringing Paris to New York

From March 1, 2013 — June 30, 2013

The BMA presents the first exhibition to extensively explore American artist Max Weber's formative years in Paris from fall 1905 to December 1908, when he transformed his painting style from classical representations of figures to bold interpretations of cubism and futurism.

More than 30 paintings, prints, and drawings-many of them loaned by the Estate of Max Weber and other public and private collections-showcase the artist as one of the most important American modernist painters. The exhibition features several Weber paintings from 1909 to 1915 from the BMA's collection, as well as works from Weber's personal collection by his teacher Henri Matisse and his friends Pablo Picasso and Henri Rousseau.

Additional support is provided by the Warnock Family Foundation and Anne and Ronald Abramson.

Black Box: Raqs Media Collective

From February 27, 2013 — June 16, 2013

The BMA's new Black Box gallery is a showcase for contemporary light, sound, and moving image works by artists from Baltimore and beyond. In collaboration with The Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Advanced Media Studies, the Museum is presenting two contemplative videos by artists-in-residence Raqs Media Collective that give a contemporary twist to historical images of India.

An Afternooon Unregistered on the Richter Scale (2011) is a silent projection that uses subtle animation techniques to bring to life a 1911 photograph. Sleepwalker's Caravan (2008) shows traditionally carved Yaksha and Yakshi figures
floating down a river flanked by contemporary industrial sites.

The New Delhi, India-based Raqs was founded in 1992 by Monica Narula (born 1969), Jeebesh Bagchi (born 1965), and Shuddhabrata Sengupta (born 1968).

Front Room: Surreal Selves

From February 16, 2013 — June 9, 2013

The Front Room's innovative, exciting, and diverse contemporary art exhibitions and projects offer visitors opportunities to experience an ever-changing variety of new perspectives from emerging and mid-career artists.

Front Room: Surreal Selves presents 16 figurative paintings by three international artists influenced by old master techniques and pop culture. Their work suggests a resurgence of Surrealism with images that convey personal fantasies, nightmares, and new permutations for the human body in a technology-driven world. Sascha Braunig (Canadian, born 1983; currently based in Maine), Aya Uekawa (Japanese, born 1979; currently based in Beacon, NY), and Erik Thor Sandberg (American, born 1975; based in Washington, DC) are the featured artists.

On Paper: Works from the Cohen Collection

From February 13, 2013 — August 25, 2013

Carl Andre, Mel Bochner, Donald Judd, Bruce Nauman, Olafur Eliasson, Tony Smith, and other important Minimalist and Conceptual artists are highlighted in this exhibition of 20 exquisite drawings from the collection of former BMA Board Chair Suzanne F. Cohen. The exhibition includes pieces both generously gifted and promised to the BMA, as well as works given to the BMA in her honor.

On Paper: Drawings from the Benesch Collection

From November 18, 2012 — February 10, 2013

The BMA’s new gallery dedicated to the presentation of the Museum’s renowned holdings of prints, drawings, and photographs opens with 10 outstanding drawings from the 1960s and 70s by contemporary masters for whom drawing was central to their art.

These works show a range of everyday and extraordinary objects—from Jasper Johns’ trompe l’oeil rendering of a hanger to Claes Oldenburg’s amusing sketch of a baked potato monument in front of New York City’s Plaza Hotel. Philip Guston, Lee Bontecou, James Rosenquist, and Antoni Tàpies are among the other artists represented. These works are drawn from the Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection at the BMA, a group of more than 140 remarkable drawings by international contemporary artists.

Front Room: Zwelethu Mthethwa

From November 18, 2012 — February 10, 2013

The BMA’s celebrated Front Room series returns with eight stunning color portrait photographs by the acclaimed South African artist Zwelethu Mthethwa (pronounced zweh-LEH-too mm-TATE-twa). Selections from three of his most compelling series include large-scale images of South African youth in elaborate church uniforms, interior portraits of South Africans that show aspects of their domestic life, and laborers amidst the stark landscape of the sugar cane industry. Mthethwa (South African, born 1960) has had over 35 solo exhibitions in venues around the world, including the 2005 Venice Biennale.

The Front Room series’ smart, lively, and engaging exhibitions change every four months throughout the year. Look for a range of solo artist shows and thematic exhibitions with an international and multidisciplinary perspective that showcase some of the most innovative artists and ideas of our time.

Gaia: Site-specific installation

From November 18, 2012 — May 19, 2013

For this unique indoor project, Baltimore-based street artist Gaia created portraits of individuals living in the BMA’s neighboring Remington community, inspired by the Museum’s iconic painting Vahine no te vi (Woman of the Mango) by Paul Gauguin.

Working from Baltimore and San Francisco to Amsterdam and Seoul, Gaia's distinctive hand-drawn images have explored immigration and segregation, the need to foster green spaces, and the economics and politics of urban development.

Gaia recently received a BFA in Interdisciplinary Sculpture from Maryland Institute College of Art and curated Open Walls Baltimore, where acclaimed street artists from around the world mounted an outdoor exhibition of extraordinary murals throughout the Station North community in Baltimore.

Black Box: Allora & Calzadilla

From November 18, 2012 — February 3, 2013

The BMA’s new Black Box gallery for light, sound, and moving image works debuts with <em>A Man Screaming is Not a Dancing Bear</em>, a recently acquired 11-minute video (2008) set in New Orleans. Alternating footage of an abandoned house ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the seemingly calm wetlands ofthe lower Mississippi River Delta builds a quiet tension that is interrupted by images of a resident of the city’s 9th Ward transforming the blinds of the home into a percussive instrument. These haunting scenes evoke the musical traditions of New Orleans, the idea of artistic creation coming in the aftermath of destruction, and the visual metaphor of light breaking into the darkness of the abandoned house.</p>
<p>Collaborators Jennifer Allora (American, born 1974) and Guillermo Calzadilla (Cuban, born 1971) have made perseverance and accomplishment in the midst of challenging circumstances the subject of videos, performances, and sculptural installations. They represented the U.S. in the 2011 Venice Biennale.

Matisse's Dancers

From November 14, 2012 — February 24, 2013

This intimate exhibition of more than 30 dance-themed prints, drawings, and sculptures by the great French artist Henri Matisse spans three decades of the artist’s career—from sculptures created in 1909-11 to delicate drawings of dancers sketched in 1949.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a rarely shown series of 11 transfer lithographs of a dancer/acrobat moving through various positions that evolve into an abstraction of reality, movement, and shape. These prints, drawn as lithographs in 1931-32, but published after Matisse’s death, are among the most eloquent examples of the artist’s way of seeing.

The exhibition also includes an earlier series of prints of dancers by Matisse from 1926-27, two of his later series of drawings from 1949, and two sculptures by artists who were equally fascinated with dancers, Auguste Rodin and Edgar Degas.

This exhibition is dedicated in memory of the artist’s grandson and BMA National Trustee Claude Duthuit.

The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund established the Baker Artist Awards in 2008-2009 to recognize Baltimore’s artists and engage regional, national, and international audiences in supporting these artists’ work. All Baltimore-area artists working in any creative discipline who live and work in Baltimore City and the five surrounding counties are encouraged to register, exhibit their work, promote the site to friends, and compete for the Mary Sawyers Baker Prizes.

This exhibition is generously funded by The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund. The Baker Artist Awards program is directed by The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund with the assistance of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance.

From June 16, 2012 — July 29, 2012

In conjunction with Artscape, Baltimore’s premier arts festival organized by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, the BMA presents a special exhibition of works by the Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize finalists: Lisa Dillin, Jon Duff, Hasan Elahi, Matthew Janson, John McNeil, and Renee Stout.

Named after the late Baltimore civic leader Walter Sondheim and his late wife, Janet, the Sondheim Prize recognizes the achievements of visual artists living or working in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, and southeastern Pennsylvania. This prestigious award is designed to assist visual artists or visual artist collaborators in furthering their careers by awarding a $30,000 fellowship.

The semi-finalists, finalists, and winner are all chosen by an independent panel of jurors. The winner of the $30,000 prize will be announced on July 14 at the BMA.

Presented by the Baltimore Office of Promotion &AMP; The Arts in partnership with The Baltimore Museum of Art.

The exhibition is generously sponsored by Stiles Tuttle Colwill and Jonathan Gargiulo.

Baltimore City and Baltimore County Public Schools Art Exhibitions

From May 2, 2012 — May 13, 2012

The imagination and talent of Baltimore City and Baltimore County students is on view in these two annual student art exhibitions: fyi ... For Your Inspiration and Art is for Everyone. Pre-K students through high school seniors attending public schools in Baltimore City and Baltimore County present a wide range of impressive artwork including sculpture, photography, drawing, painting, and digital art.

Baltimore City Schools Reception: Saturday, May 5, 1-4 p.m.

Baltimore County Schools Reception: Sunday, May 6, 1-4 p.m.

Candida Höfer: Interior Worlds

From November 16, 2011 — February 26, 2012

She opens our eyes… to a Baltimore in which learning and the arts remain activities vital to the life well lived.

- Baltimore Sun, January 2, 2012

Thirteen works by the internationally acclaimed contemporary German photographer Candida Höfer are presented in this intimate exhibition. Known for her large-scale, intensely detailed images of grand architectural spaces such as the Louvre and Paris Opera, Höfer spent several days in Baltimore in 2010 creating spectacular photographs of the George Peabody Library and The Walters Art Museum. These works, as well as others loaned from private collectors and from the artist, are installed in two neoclassical galleries adjacent to the BMA’s collection of 16th- and 17th-century European paintings.

Embroidered Treasures: Textiles from Central Asia

From November 13, 2011 — July 8, 2012

More than a dozen bold, colorful embroidered textiles from Central Asia are being presented for the first time at the BMA. These stunning late 19th- to early 20th-century textiles include wall hangings, covers, a wedding canopy, and saddle cover made in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

They represent both city cultures and those of formerly nomadic peoples such as the Lakai. Primarily made of cotton with multicolored silk thread embroidery by young women and their female relatives, many of these textiles were used as part of their dowries and family treasures that were reluctantly parted with during periods of political and economic hardship.

This exhibition is supported by the BMA’s Jean and Allan Berman Textile Endowment Fund.

Print by Print: From Dürer to Lichtenstein

From October 30, 2011 — March 25, 2012

The BMA’s world-class print collection is the inspiration for an unprecedented exhibition of works spanning 500 years of printmaking. Discover more than 350 prints by Canaletto, Pablo Picasso, Ed Ruscha, and other European and American artists who created series covering a wide range of topics— places, imagination, narrative, design, appropriation, and war. Also represented are two voices for a new generation of printmakers, Daniel Heyman and Andrew Raftery.

Hand Held: Personal Arts from Africa

From September 25, 2011 — February 5, 2012

Discover more than 80 visually engaging objects used in daily life in Africa that brilliantly merge artistry and utility. Late 19th- and early 20th-century hats, combs, vessels, baskets, seats, blankets, and wearable textiles drawn from the BMA’s outstanding African collection include several major recent acquisitions being shown for the first time.

The exhibition is installed in galleries adjacent to the museum’s African collection, providing a more expansive view of the BMA’s remarkable holdings. A selection of videos and photographs will show how the objects were created and used.

Baker Artist Awards 2011

From September 7, 2011 — October 2, 2011

The BMA celebrates the Baker Artist Awards with an exhibition of works by the three Mary Sawyers Baker Prize winners: visual artist Gary Kachadourian, performance artist Audrey Chen, and beatboxer and vocal percussionist Shodekeh. Recipients of 18 $1,000 b-grants will also have the opportunity to exhibit their works at the BMA. The exhibition will culminate in a free late night closing party on Saturday, October 1.

This year, 696 Baltimore-area artists submitted their work to the competition at www.bakerartistawards.org. The three winners of the $25,000 Mary Sawyers Baker Prizes were selected by a private jury of national experts.

The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund established the Baker Artist Awards in 2008-2009 and the b-grants in 2010-2011 to recognize Baltimore’s artists and engage regional, national, and international audiences in supporting these artists’ work. All Baltimore-area artists working in any creative discipline are encouraged to register, exhibit their work, promote the site to friends, and compete for the Mary Sawyers Baker Prizes.

Organization: The Baker Artist Awards is a program of The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund created to honor individual artists who live and work in Baltimore City and the five surrounding counties. Organized by Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs Ann Shafer.

Sondheim Artscape Prize: 2011 Finalists

From June 25, 2011 — August 7, 2011

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts are proud to announce that Matthew Porterfield is the winner of the 2011 Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize.

In conjunction with Artscape, Baltimore’s premier arts festival organized by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, the BMA presents a special exhibition of works by the finalists for the Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize. The finalists this year are Stephanie Barber, Louie Palu, Mark Parascandola, Matthew Porterfield and Rachel Rotenberg.

Named after the late Baltimore civic leader Walter Sondheim and his late wife, Janet, the Sondheim Artscape Prize recognizes the achievements of visual artists living or working in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, and southeastern Pennsylvania. The semi-finalists, finalists, and winner are all chosen by an independent panel of jurors.

This year’s jurors are Polly Apfelbaum, a New York-based artist; Isolde Brielmaier, curator, writer, and creative consultant; Lucy Gallun, a curatorial assistant in the Photography Department of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Tina Kukielski, a member of the curatorial team that is organizing the 56th Carnegie International, a leading global survey of contemporary art. An exhibition of works by the semi-finalists is on view at the Maryland Institute College of Art, July 14 - 31, 2011.

Organization: Presented by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts in partnership with The Baltimore Museum of Art. Organized by Curator of Contemporary Art Kristen Hileman.

The exhibition is generously sponsored by Stiles Tuttle Colwill. Additional support is provided by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Rabinowitz.

Baltimore City and Baltimore County Public Schools Student Art Exhibitions

From June 1, 2011 — June 5, 2011

Experience the creativity and imagination of Baltimore's youth— from pre-kindergartners to high school seniors attending public schools in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. The variety of impressive artwork includes sculpture, photography, drawing, painting, and digital art.

Curator's Choice: Jean and Allan Berman Textile Gallery

From May 14, 2011 — October 30, 2011

A lush printed velveteen bedcover, fine Li skirt, and important William Morris Hammersmith rug are among the captivating selections handpicked by Curator Anita Jones for Curator’s Choice. Beyond the intimate Berman Textile Gallery, look for other exquisite textiles in the American Wing's 19th-century gallery, the Willowbrook Room, and the European Decorative Arts Gallery.

Seeing Now: Photography Since 1960

From February 20, 2011 — May 15, 2011

More than 200 compelling images showcase photography's extraordinary development since 1960 in this gripping exhibition. Seeing Now offers a striking snapshot of the world around us as seen through the eyes of more than 60 photographers—including Diane Arbus, William Eggleston, Garry Winogrand, and Cindy Sherman.

This exhibition reveals the astonishing breadth and depth of the BMA's outstanding photography collection and presents many recent acquisitions being shown at the museum for the first time. Works include single photographs, series, film, and video. Examine sub-cultures and expressions of the human form; natural and man-made environments; ephemeral performances and artistic projects; and the role of light and time in photography.

Andy Warhol: The Last Decade

From October 17, 2010 — January 9, 2011

The first museum exhibition in the U.S. to explore the late works of American artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987) brings together more than 50 works that reveal the artist’s energetic return to painting and renewed spirit of experimentation during the last decade of his life. This period shows the celebrity Pop icon creating more paintings and on a vastly larger scale than at any other moment of his 40-year career.

Highlights drawn from national and international public and private collections include psychologically revealing self portraits, Rorschach and camouflage paintings, and three variations on Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper that stretch 25 to 35 feet in width, immersing the viewer in dramatic fields of color.

Andy Warhol: The Last Decade is organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum. The exhibition was curated by Joe D. Ketner II, Henry and Lois Foster Chair of Contemporary Art, Emerson College, Boston.

Generously sponsored by The Rouse Company Foundation and The Alvin and Fanny Blaustein Thalheimer Exhibition Endowment Fund. Additional support by Jeffrey and Harriet Legum. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the American Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Media Sponsor City Paper.

Front Room: Guyton\Walker

From September 22, 2010 — January 16, 2011

In conjunction with the BMA’s presentation of Andy Warhol: The Last Decade, the New York-based collaborative Guyton\Walker is presenting a sprawling installation with energetic and colorful components that demonstrate how Warhol’s artistic legacy impacts a new generation of artists.

Artists Wade Guyton (b. 1972) and Kelley Walker (b. 1969) are known for producing lively visual environments from digitally manipulated screen-printed images and sculptural elements such as paint cans, drywall, and tables. Their installation at the BMA will extend into various spaces in the West Wing for Contemporary Art, combining image and pattern, and aspects of fine art and graphic design.

Generously sponsored by Joanne Gold and Andrew Stern. Additional support provided by Sherry and Stuart Christhilf.

Sponsored by the BMA’s Friends of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Advancing Abstraction in Modern Sculpture

From July 21, 2010 — February 20, 2011

One of the earliest examples of David Smith’s welding is shown for the first time in this exhibition of more than 30 works drawn from the BMA’s collection, the Estate of David Smith, and private collections. Once considered “lost” by the Smith Estate, Head with Cogs for Eyes came to the BMA last year as part of a generous bequest. It is joined by works by Hans Arp, Naum Gabo, Julio Gonzalez, Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson, and other modern artists who moved beyond the figure to create sculptures based on a new language of abstract forms.